Action proposal: Current Elevation

[zecanard]

Description

Would it be possible for Actions to query the current elevation? All iPhones starting with the 6 series have a barometric altimeter, and older ones provide GPS-based altitude.

Thank you!

[sindresorhus]

I will add it in the next update 👍

[zecanard]

You rock! 🙌🏼

[zecanard]

Looks to be working well! Thank you.

Although the units need to be filtered, I think 🤔

[sindresorhus]

Although the units need to be filtered, I think 🤔

The action returns the correct unit, so this is just another Shortcuts bug.

[zecanard]

This Action kept timing out when I tried it today, a few hours after restarting my iPhone. I opened the Compass app, and the Action immediately started working.

This hadn’t happened before, even though I don’t open the Compass very often, so I’m not sure what else starts up the altimeter (maybe Maps). Just a heads up.

Thanks again for implementing this!

[zecanard]

This actually happens every time I reboot my iPhone: Get Elevation times out after ≈ 30s. Opening the Compass app does allow the Action to complete, but only for a few seconds. If I wait and try again, the Action times out again.

The issue may persist for many hours (6+ hours in my experience), and I haven’t been able to determine what gets the Action working again. I live on the second floor of a building, and in my (very limited) observations it has started working every time I went downstairs. Butit has also started working despite not leaving my apartment.

I’m not sure if this is caused by iOS 17.4, but I don’t recall it happening on 17.3. Is there anything the app can do to trigger the altimeter?

[sindresorhus]

I'm unable to reproduce this, but I'm on iOS 17.3. I will try again when iOS 17.4 is out.

If it times out, it means iOS never returned any elevation update.

[zecanard]

I’m thinking it must be 17.4, as even the Compass app takes a few seconds to properly update when this issue crops up. If I leave the Shortcut running in the background while I switch to the Compass, the Action completes right after the Compass finally updates its elevation.

It can be quite random, too. A few days ago, Get Elevation started timing out while I was out and about. Then it started working again after I got home, but this time, it continued working after my next reboot.

I’ll file a sysdiagnose with Apple next time it happens.

[zecanard]

This bug persists in 17.4.1, but my report from February got updated today. When I checked this morning, it was Open with more than 10 similar reports; tonight it’s showing a fix is coming.